God Is Not Three Persons but One Person, and the Holy
Spirit Is Not a Person

Since man is a single person God
is too, because man was made in God’s image (Gen 1.27; 5.1, 3). So, God’s Spirit
(=Holy Spirit) is to God what man’s spirit is to man. Thus, God’s Spirit is not
a person.

Dan 7.9-10 portrays a heavenly
judgment scene of God and his angelic council. “Thrones” likely belong to the 24
elders of the book of Revelation. Dan 7.13-14 depicts a heavenly coronation
ceremony in which God gives the SofM a great kingdom to take to earth. This SofM
is not strictly a symbol of the endtimes Jewish saints, nor do clouds indicate
he is divine. Jesus called himself SofM based on this text.

NEW TESTAMENT (=NT)

Introduction

According to the NT
gospels, Jesus never claimed to be God. Rather, Jesus did miracles by the power
of the Spirit of God. This indicates his dependence upon, and subordination to,
God, which nullify that he is God. Thus, Jesus doing miracles and arising from
the dead do not indicate that he is God. The nine major, NT theos texts
traditionalists cite to support their belief that Jesus is God are as follows:

Text

Problem(s)

Genre

Translation (nasb)

Jn 1.1c

punctuation
grammatical

hymn (?)

In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Jn 1.18

textual
grammatical

hymn (?)

No man has seen
God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the
Father, He has explained Him.

Jn 20.28

grammatical

confession

Thomas answered
and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

Rom 9.5

punctuation
grammatical

doxology

whose are the
fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over
all, God blessed forever. Amen.

2 Th 1.12

grammatical

doctrine

according to the
grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Tit 2.13

grammatical

prophecy

looking for the
blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior,
Christ Jesus

Heb 1.8-9

textual
grammatical contextual

Old Testament
citation

But of the Son He
says, thy throne, o god, is
forever and ever,… therefore god, thy god, hath anointed thee

2 Pt 1.1

textual
grammatical

salutation

by the
righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ

1 Jn 5.20

grammatical

summary

we are in Him who
is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

Christology of Jesus

Jesus Believed that Only the Father Is God, Repeatedly
Calling Him “my God.”

·Jesus answered the scribe about what is the greatest commandment
by saying, “‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one” …
Then the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher, you have truly said that
“he is one, and besides him there is no other”’”(Mk 12.29, 32).

·Jesus referred to “my/the Father” as “the one who alone is God?”
(Jn 5.43-45).

·Jesus prayed, “Father,… that they may know you, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ” (Jn 17.3).

·The risen Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, “go to my brothers and say
to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’”
(Jn 20.17).

·The heavenly Jesus called God the Father “my God” five times in
Rev 3.2, 12. See also Rev 1.6.

Jesus Asked His Disciples Who He Was:

·Peter answered Jesus, “You are the Messiah” (Mk 8.29; Lk 9.20 adds
“of God” & Mt 16.16 “the Son of the living God”). Peter never said Jesus is God.
Being God is far greater than being the Messiah.

The Jews Asked Jesus Who He Was:

·“Who are you?” (Jn 8.25)

·“Who do you claim to be?” (Jn 8.53).

·“If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly” (Jn 8.24).

·At Jesus’ hearing before the Sanhedrin, no one ever accused him of
claiming to be God. Finally, the high priest asked him, “‘Are you the Messiah,
the Son of the Blessed One?’ Jesus said, ‘I am; and you will see the Son of Man
’” coming with power and clouds (Mk 14.61-62).

Twice the Jews Accused Jesus of Claiming to Be God, and
Both Times He Denied It:

·When Jesus healed a lame man on the Sabbath, “the Jews started
persecuting Jesus” because they had unbiblical laws against it (Jn 5.16). “But
Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is still working, and I also am working.’ For
this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not
only breaking the Sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby
making himself equal to God” (vv. 17.18). For Jesus’ disclaimer, see vv. 19-46.

·Jesus said, “The Father and I are one” (Jn 10.30). The Jews took
stones to stone him for blasphemy, saying, “you, though only a human being, are
making yourself God” (v. 33). See denial in vv. 34-38.

Christology of John

·The synoptic gospels and Fourth Gospel present the same Jesus as
essentially subordinate to God. See esp. Jn 14.28: “The Father is greater than
I.”

·The Johannine Jesus was constantly misunderstood: he spoke
figuratively and people understood him literally. Both the post-apostolic church
and modern historical critics have committed this error.

·Jews and later Christians wrongly postulated that certain divine
prerogatives belong only to God. So, when Jesus claimed them, e.g., forgiveness
and judgment, they erred in thinking he claimed deity.

·Jesus as “Son” (27x) should be understood from the OT background,
not Greek metaphysics as church fathers did. Jesus is God’s one-of-a-kind (Gr.
monogenes) Son by birth, piety, and agency.

·“Christ belongs to God” (1 Cor 3.23), and “God is the head of
Christ” (11.3).

·“‘there is no God but one’ … for us there is one God, the Father,
from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ,
through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (1 Cor 8.4, 6).

· “There is one body and one spirit,… one Lord, one faith, one
baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and in all and through all”
(Eph 4.4-6).

·“To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God” (1
Tim 1.17).

·“he [God the Father] who is the blessed and only Sovereign,… It is
he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has
ever seen or can see” (1 Tim 6.15-16).

·“there is one God: there is also one mediator between God and
humankind, Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2.5)

Problem Passages

·Rom 9.5: “to them [Jews] belong the patriarchs, and from them,
according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed
forever.”

·Phil 2.6-11: Jesus “did not regard equality with God as something
to be exploited, but emptied himself” Cf. Isa 45.23.

·1 Th 1.12: “according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus
Christ.” Same in 2 Pt 1.1.

·Tit 2.13: “while we wait for the blessed hope and the
manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

·The NT calling Jesus “Lord” (kurios) does not mean he is
YHWH due to LXX translating YHWH kurios.

This author strives to prove that Jesus is
superior to others, showing he did not think he is God.

·Heb 1.8: “But of the Son, he [God] says, ‘Your throne, O God, is
forever and ever,… therefore God, your God, has anointed you.” Quotation of Ps
45.6-7. Psalmist did not intend to call the king “God.”

Worship in the New Testament

The Greek NT word proskuneo
indicates the oriental custom of genuflection (bowing the knee) or prostration
(laying the whole body face down), both of which are physical acts. English
Bible versions usually translate proskuneo “bow down” when applied to men
or angels and “worship” when applied to Jesus, showing translator bias. Pipto=fall
down. Mt 4.9-10 is different.

·24 elders proskuneo before “God” in Rev 7.10-11; 11.16,
although God and Christ are mentioned.

·Rev 5.14 might mean the 24 elders proskuneo before God and
Christ, but it is not clear. If so, it may mean no more than Jesus saying, “all
may honor the Son just as they honor the Father” (Jn 5.23).

·Conclusion: human worship of God should be directed through God’s
Son, not to the Son as if he is God. The reason is that God saves humans through
his Son—Jesus. For example, Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the
life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14.6).